Why We Endorse the Boycott of the 2012 APSA Annual Meeting in New Orleans

A 2004 amendment to the Louisiana Constitution denies marriage and “the legal incidents thereof” to same-sex couples. This provision places an affirmative burden on visiting lesbian and gay pairs, who may never have legally recognized relationships in Louisiana, regardless of their marriage, civil union, or domestic partnership in home states or countries. For example, the 2004 amendment may well invalidate, by operation of law, medical-care agreements signed outside of Louisiana between the members of same-sex couples because such documents touch the legal incidents of marriage which the state constitution withholds from those pairs.

As a result, the undersigned support the boycott of the American Political Science Association’s 2012 New Orleans conference and will not attend that meeting. We believe that a substantial risk of serious discrimination against visiting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) political scientists and their families exists in the Crescent City.

Help New Orleans Now, Not Seven Years After Katrina. Many political scientists want to show solidarity with the Big Easy after the natural devastation and political debacle of Hurricane Katrina. Yet making financial contributions to the New Orleans rebuilding effort now is the best demonstration of meaningful affinity with the plight of the Crescent City. [New Orleans rebuilding foundations include: Rebuilding Together New Orleans, Friends of New Orleans, Habitat for Humanity, Make It Right New Orleans, and Common Ground.] Four days of convention-going in 2012 is symbolic support at best, which should not be borne on the backs of LGBT colleagues. They and their families will face in New Orleans the real and enduring impact of Louisiana’s overtly hostile legal environment.

The APSA May Legally Terminate Its Contracts With New Orleans Hotels. The hotel contracts signed by the Association for the 2012 annual meeting contain this language: “APSA has selected New Orleans as a site of its annual meeting in light of the city's anti-discrimination record. APSA reserves the right of termination of this agreement, without penalty or liability, if the government of the city in which the hotel is located establishes or enforces laws that, in the estimation of APSA, abridge the civil rights of any APSA member on the basis of gender, race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, physical handicap, disability, or religion.”

Two features of this contractual provision are crucially important. First, if the New Orleans city government enforces laws that abridge the civil rights of any APSA member on the basis of sexual orientation, the Association may terminate the hotel agreements without penalty or liability. Second, the “in-the-estimation-of-APSA” contractual language gives the Association the legal authority reasonably to determine what laws trigger this termination provision.

City government officials in New Orleans take an oath to uphold the Louisiana Constitution. Thus, city officials pledge themselves to act, pursuant to the state constitution, to abridge the civil rights of APSA members who are married to, or have civil unions or domestic partnerships with, same-sex partners. Accordingly, the Association may legally terminate the 2012 hotel contracts without penalty or liability.

New Orleans Is Not Gay-Friendly. A principal argument of many who advocate for the New Orleans conference is that the Crescent City is gay-friendly. But what evidence is there of that assertion?

For instance, Louisiana did not force the 2004 state constitutional amendment on an otherwise gay-relationship-tolerant Big Easy. Rather, 55 percent of voters in Orleans Parish approved the antigay provision.

Furthermore, in a 2007 national survey, the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association sent questionnaires to every hospital in Louisiana inquiring about six measures of nondiscrimination involving LGBT patients. Only two institutions – East Jefferson General Hospital (in Metairie) and the Medical Center of Louisiana (in New Orleans) – responded. And their replies weren’t encouraging. For example, MCL does not have a written visitation policy allowing LGBT domestic partners the same access to patients as spouses and next of kin.

In short, there are virtually no concrete legal, political, or health-care measures confirming that, in the event of emergency, LGBT political scientists and their families would be treated with the same dignity and respect as their heterosexual counterparts at a New Orleans conference. [Learn about a relevant incident.] Rather, every such empirical marker indicates that the Crescent City’s attitude toward LGBT Americans is, at very best, indifferent – but certainly not friendly.

Comparable Discrimination Against Other Groups Would Be Intolerable. If the Louisiana Constitution in effect said, “People of color may not marry or enter into marriage-like unions,” or “Jews may not marry or enter into marriage-like unions,” or “Disabled people may not marry or enter into marriage-like unions,” the American Political Science Association wouldn’t be mired in the present debate. The organization would never regard the Crescent City as a viable conference site under those circumstances.

[Read additional commentaries on the New Orleans Boycott]

Accordingly, we endorse the boycott of the 2012 APSA Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

(List of signatories in formation. Please e-mail dan@danpinello.com to add your name. As of April 3, 2009:)

The APSA Committee on the Status of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and the Transgendered in the Profession [Read its statement]

Martha Ackelsberg, Smith College [Read her statement]

Jason Adams, University of Hawaii

Lauren A. Albright, Temple University

Victoria H. Allen, Queens College, CUNY

Gaston Alonso, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Saladin M. Ambar, Lafayette College

Joseph Amodeo, University at Albany, SUNY

Kevin B. Anderson, Purdue University

Robert Andolina, Seattle University

George Andreopoulos, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Elisabeth R. Anker, George Washington University

Ivan Ascher, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Carol Atkinson, Vanderbilt University

James Mac Avery, Richard Stockton College

William Avilés, University of Nebraska-Kearney

Carl Baar, Brock and York Universities (Canada)

W. Meredith Bacon, University of Nebraska-Omaha

Judith A. Baer, Texas A&M University

Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes University

Lawrie Balfour, University of Virginia

Bat-Ami Bar On, Binghamton University, SUNY

Scott W. Barclay, University at Albany, SUNY

Banu Bargu, New School for Social Research

Amílcar Antonio Barreto, Northeastern University

William J. Bartosch, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Cristina Basciano, Saint Joseph's University

Joyce A. Baugh, Central Michigan University

Peter J. Baxter, Niagara University

Lorraine Bayard de Volo, University of Colorado-Denver

Elizabeth Beaumont, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Michael E. Begay, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Mary L. Bellhouse, Providence College

Cristina Beltrán, Haverford College

Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University

Ramiro Berardo, University of Arizona

Angélica M. Bernal, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Susan Bickford, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Jack Bielasiak, Indiana University-Bloomington

Marc Blecher, Oberlin College

Charles Boateng, Villanova University

P. J. Brendese, College of William and Mary

John Brigham, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Wendy Brown, University of California-Berkeley [Read her statement]

Kent Brudney, Cuesta College

Kevin Bruyneel, Babson College

Kristin Bumiller, Amherst College

Laurie Buonanno, Buffalo State College, SUNY

Cynthia Burack, Ohio State University

Elizabeth Bussiere, University of Massachusetts-Boston

Anne Caldwell, University of Louisville

Mary Caprioli, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Martin Carcieri, San Francisco State University

Robert A. Carp, University of Houston

Bruce A. Carroll, Eastern Michigan University

Terrell Carver, University of Bristol (United Kingdom)

Michael Ceriello, Clark College

Samuel A. Chambers, Johns Hopkins University

Fred Chernoff, Colgate University

Giacomo Chiozza, Vanderbilt University

Daniel Chomsky, Temple University

Annette Clear, University of California-Santa Cruz

Cari Coe, University of California-Los Angeles

Alyson M. Cole, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Ken Conca, University of Maryland-College Park

William E. Connolly, Johns Hopkins University

Pamela Johnston Conover, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Linda J. Cook, Brown University

Julie E. Cooper, University of Chicago

William Corlett, Bates College

Rose Corrigan, Drexel University

John Walton Cotman, Howard University

Sarah Cotterill, Princeton University

Jane K. Cramer, University of Oregon

Kerry F. Crawford, George Washington University

Elizabeth H. Crighton, Pomona College

Stephen Crowley, Oberlin College

Jennifer L. Culbert, Johns Hopkins University

Carlos Cunha, Dowling College

Paisley Currah, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Brian D'Agostino, City College of New York, CUNY

Francine J. D'Amico, Syracuse University

Michael C. Dawson, University of Chicago

Jodi Dean, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Steven M. DeLue, Miami University (Ohio)

Matthew Desilet, Northeastern University

David Dessler, College of William and Mary

Nan M. DiBello, Empire State College, SUNY

Joshua Foa Dienstag, University of California-Los Angeles

Mary G. Dietz, Northwestern University

Martin K. Dimitrov, Dartmouth College

Lisa Jane Disch, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

G. William Domhoff, University of California-Santa Cruz

John Donnangelo, Bronx Community College, CUNY

Paul Dosh, Macalester College

Thomas L. Dumm, Amherst College

Raymond D. Duvall, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

David Easton, University of California-Irvine

Kent Eaton, University of California-Santa Cruz

Lynn Mills Eckert, Marist College

Zillah Eisenstein, Ithaca College

Elisabeth Ellis, Texas A&M University

Laura Ephraim, Northwestern University

Peter M. Eraca, Dutchess Community College, SUNY

J. Peter Euben, Duke University

Roxanne L. Euben, Wellesley College

James Farr, Northwestern University

Ilene Feinman, California State University-Monterey Bay

Kathy E. Ferguson, University of Hawai'i

Michaele L. Ferguson, University of Colorado-Boulder

Leela Fernandes, Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Ada W. Finifter, Michigan State University

Caitlin Fitzgerald, University of St. Andrews (United Kingdom)

Richard Flanagan, College of Staten Island, CUNY

Amy Fried, University of Maine-Orono

Paul Frymer, Princeton University

Peter Funke, University of Pennsylvania

Jennifer Gaboury, the Graduate Center, CUNY

Susan E. Gallagher, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

Joyce Gelb, City College of New York and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Christopher Gelpi, Duke University

Emily R. Gill, Bradley University

Richard Gilman-Opalsky, University of Illinois-Springfield

Benjamin Ginsberg, Johns Hopkins University

Rachel M. Gisselquist, Harvard University

Johnny Goldfinger, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Benjamin Goldfrank, Seton Hall University

Sheldon Goldman, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Joshua S. Goldstein, American University (Emeritus)

Mark Golub, Scripps College

George A. Gonzalez, University of Miami

Michael Goodhart, University of Pittsburgh [Read his statement]

Robert Gooding-Williams, University of Chicago

Jeffrey Goodwin, New York University

Jane Gordon, Temple University

Ellen Grigsby, University of New Mexico

Kimmo Grönlund, Åbo Akademi University (Finland)

Jeannie Grussendorf, Georgia State University

Ayten Gundogdu, Barnard College

John G. Gunnell, University at Albany, SUNY

David Guston, Arizona State University

Wilmer Gutierrez, Goucher College

Justin Hackett, Claremont Graduate University

Marie-Claude Hamel, Brown University

Lori Cox Han, Chapman University

Michael Hanchard, Johns Hopkins University

Christine B. Harrington, New York University

Roger E. Hartley, University of Arizona

Michelle L. Hartman, Saint Peter's College

Linda Hasunuma, University of California-Los Angeles

Tomohisa Hattori, Lehman College, CUNY

Ron Hayduk, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY

Stefan Heumann, University of Pennsylvania

H N Hirsch, Oberlin College

Kinch Hoekstra, University of California-Berkeley

Catherine A. Holland, University of Missouri-Columbia

Bonnie Honig, Northwestern University

Philip N. Howard, University of Washington-Seattle

Chris Howell, Oberlin College

Elizabeth Hull, Rutgers University-Newark

Valerie F. Hunt, ABW Solutions, LLC

Susan Jackson, Independent Scholar

Maiah Jaskoski, Naval Postgraduate School

Timothy D. Jeske, Yakima Valley Community College

Alana Jeydel, American River College

Genevieve Fuji Johnson, Simon Fraser University (Canada)

Richard Johnson, III, University of Vermont

Steven Johnston, University of South Florida

Karen Long Jusko, Stanford University

Miles Kahler, University of California-San Diego

Ronald Kahn, Oberlin College

Karen E. Kampwirth, Knox College

Annelies Z. Kamran, the Graduate Center, CUNY

Kristen E. Kao, University of California-Los Angeles

Morris B. Kaplan, Purchase College, SUNY

Richard S. Katz, Johns Hopkins University

Timothy V. Kaufman-Osborn, Whitman College

Christine Keating, Ohio State University

Gina L. Keel, SUNY College at Oneonta

Alison G. Keleher, California Polytechnic State University

Barbara Kellerman, Harvard University

Elizabeth A. Kelly, DePaul University

Sean Q. Kelly, California State University-Channel Islands

Ellen Kennedy, University of Pennsylvania

Mark Kessler, Texas Woman's University

Claire Jean Kim, University of California-Irvine

David Kyuman Kim, Connecticut College

Thomas P. Kim, Scripps College

David C. King, Harvard University

Peter Kingstone, University of Connecticut-Storrs

David Kinsella, Portland State University

Judith J. Kirchhoff, Rutgers University-Newark

Jennet Kirkpatrick, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

George C. Kiser, Illinois State University

Jimmy Casas Klausen, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Martin Knapp, Webster University

Greg Knehans, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

Bettina Koch, Virginia Polytechnic and State University

Michael A. Krassa, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

Jeffrey Kraus, Wagner College

Sharon R. Krause, Brown University

Adam L. Kress, University at Albany, SUNY

John Krinsky, City College of New York, CUNY

Sonia Kruks, Oberlin College

Edward L. Lascher, Jr., California State University-Sacramento

Christopher Peter Latimer, SUNY-Cortland

Peter LaVenia, University at Albany, SUNY

Anna O. Law, DePaul University

Roy Leavitt, Greenwich House, Inc.

Claudia Leeb, Harvard University

Bronwyn Leebaw, University of California-Riverside

Valerie D. Lehr, St. Lawrence University

Gary L. Lehring, Smith College

Cheng Li, Hamilton College

Kenneth J. Long, Saint Joseph College (Connecticut)

Rhonda Kinney Longworth, Eastern Michigan University

Nancy S. Love, Pennsylvania State University-University Park

Nancy Luxon, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Cecelia M. Lynch, University of California-Irvine

William T. Lyons, Jr., University of Akron

David C. Maas, University of Alaska-Anchorage (Emeritus)

Glenn Mackin, University of Rochester

Maruice Louis Mangum, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville

Kristina Mani, Oberlin College

Brad Mapes-Martins, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Robyn Marasco, Williams College

George E. Marcus, Williams College

Patchen Markell, University of Chicago

Renee Marlin-Bennett, Johns Hopkins University

Lori Marso, Union College

James Martel, San Francisco State University

Andrew Martin, Harvard University

F. Elaine Martin, Eastern Michigan University

Robert W. T. Martin, Hamilton College

Scott B. Martin, Columbia University and the New School for Social Research

John D. C. Masters, Empire State College, SUNY

Dean Mathiowetz, University of California-Santa Cruz

Rachel A. May, University of Washington-Tacoma

Kirstie M. McClure, University of California-Los Angeles

David McCuan, Sonoma State University

Robert McNamara, Sonoma State University

Patrick Meier, Tufts University

Tali Mendelberg, Princeton University

Tamara Metz, Reed College

Gregg Miller, University of Washington-Tacoma

Kristen R. Monroe, University of California-Irvine

Matthew J. Moore, California Polytechnic State University

Will H. Moore, Florida State University

Katherine Moose, University of California-San Diego

Kenneth Mott, Gettysburg College

Patricia Moynagh, Wagner College

Ella Myers, University of Utah

Laurie Naranch, Siena College

Cary J. Nederman, Texas A&M University

Philip T. Neisser, SUNY Potsdam

Catherine Nelson, Sonoma State University

Christine L. Nemacheck, College of William and Mary

Michael Nordquist, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania

Angela Oberbauer, San Diego Mesa College

Duane Oldfield, Knox College

John M. Orbell, University of Oregon

Melissa A. Orlie, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

Diana Owen, Georgetown University

Saba Ozyurt, University of California-Irvine

Robert M. Pallitto, Seton Hall University

Davide Panagia, Trent University (Canada)

Michael Paris, College of Staten Island, CUNY

Paul A. Passavant, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

David Pearl, Washington State University

David Peritz, Sarah Lawrence College

Susan Peterson, College of William and Mary

V. Spike Peterson, University of Arizona

Philip Pettit, Princeton University

Brent L. Pickett, University of Wyoming

Jason Pierceson, University of Illinois-Springfield

Daniel R. Pinello, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY [Read his statements]

Edgard K. Pires, Independent Scholar

Jennifer Pitts, University of Chicago

Antoinette Pole, Montclair State University

Carlos Ponce, Tufts University

Daniel E. Price, Westfield State College

Diane-Michele Prindeville, New Mexico State University

Andrew Prozeller, Rutgers University-Newark

Claire E. Rasmussen, University of Delaware

Kal Raustiala, University of California-Los Angeles

Jennifer Raymond, University of Massachusetts-Boston

Benjamin Read, University of California-Santa Cruz

Wesley Renfro, University of Connecticut-Storrs

Andrew Reynolds, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Andrew Rich, City College of New York, CUNY

Craig Rimmerman, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Kent J. Rissmiller, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Denise Munro Robb, University of California-Irvine

Ann M. Robbart, University of Massachusetts-Boston

Corey Robin, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Christopher C. Robinson, Clarkson University

Jean C. Robinson, Indiana University-Bloomington

Mark Carl Rom, Georgetown University

Gerald N. Rosenberg, University of Chicago

Shawn W. Rosenberg, University of California-Irvine

Donald Rosenthal, University at Buffalo, SUNY (Emeritus)

Timothy Ruback. Smith College

Diane Rubenstein, Cornell University

Jerry M. Rueff, University of Denver

Jennifer Rutledge, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Arthur Saltz, Brooklyn College, CUNY

John Sanbonmatsu, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Eve Sandberg, Oberlin College

Stephanie Sapiie, Nassau Community College, SUNY

Frederic C. Schaffer, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Matthew Scherer, Johns Hopkins University

Benjamin N. Schiff, Oberlin College

Deborah Schildkraut, Tufts University

Ronald J. Schmidt, Jr., University of Southern Maine

Vivien A. Schmidt, Boston University

Gordon Schochet, Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Erin Scholnick, College of San Mateo

Morton Schoolman, University at Albany, SUNY

Shawn Schulenberg, University of California-Riverside

Jillian Schwedler, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Joanna Vecchiarelli Scott, Eastern Michigan University

Donald D. Searing, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

John E. Seery, Pomona College

Bilal Sekou (aka Darryl L. McMiller), University of Hartford

Anna Seleny, Tufts University

Guillermina Seri, Union College

Vanita Seth, University of California-Santa Cruz

Torrey J. Shanks, University at Albany, SUNY

Mary L. Shanley, Vassar College [Read her statement]

Jacob N. Shapiro, Princeton University

Michael J. Shapiro, University of Hawai'i

Steven M. Shellman, College of William and Mary

Elizabeth Sherr, Sherr Consulting

Kenneth S. Sherrill, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Thomas Shevory, Ithaca College

George Shulman, New York University

Curtis S. Signorino, University of Rochester

Jon Howard Simons, Indiana University-Bloomington

Beate Sissenich, Indiana University-Bloomington

Laura Sjoberg, Virginia Polytechnic and State University

Daniel Skinner, the Graduate Center, CUNY

Jeff Sluyter-Beltrao, Alfred University

Anna Marie Smith, Cornell University [Read her statement]

Charles Anthony Smith, University of California-Irvine

Daniel Markham Smith, University of California-San Diego

Eric R. A. N. Smith, University of California-Santa Barbara

Thomas W. Smith, University of South Florida

Tony Smith, Tufts University

Verity Smith, Harvard University

Zachary A. Smith, Northern Arizona University

Sarah Song, University of California-Berkeley

Bartholomew H. Sparrow, University of Texas-Austin

Valerie Sperling, Clark University

Gertrude Steuernagel, Kent State University

Howard Stoffer, United Nations

Gary Stradiotto, University of California-Davis

Steven C. Tauber, University of South Florida

Jennifer Taw, Claremont McKenna College

Megan Thomas, University of California-Santa Cruz

A. Trevor Thrall, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Daniel J. Tichenor, University of Oregon

Charles Tien, Hunter College, CUNY

Michael J. Tierney, College of William and Mary

Vincent Tirelli, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Joan C. Tronto, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Heather M. Turcotte, University of Connecticut-Storrs [Read her statement]

Jack Turner, University of Washington-Seattle

Robert Tynes, SUNY New Paltz

Jay Ulfelder, Science Applications International Corporation

Wystan Umland, Harvard University

Richard M. Valelly, Swarthmore College

Stephen Van Evera, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Stephen E. Van Holde, Kenyon College

Antonio Y. Vazquez-Arroyo, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Charles R. Venator Santiago, University of Connecticut-Storrs

Michael Vocino, University of Rhode Island

Nancy Wadsworth, University of Denver

Nathan Wallace, the Graduate Center, CUNY

Dana Ward, Pitzer College

James F. Ward, University of Massachusetts-Boston

Stephen L. Wasby, University at Albany, SUNY

Julie A. Webber, Illinois State University

Lisa Wedeen, University of Chicago

Eve Weinbaum, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Matt Wetstein, San Joaquin Delta College

Leah J. Wilds, University of Nevada-Reno

Jean Williams, California Polytechnic State University

Juliet Williams, University of California-Los Angeles

Franke Wilmer, Montana State University

Angelia R. Wilson, University of Manchester (United Kingdom)

Harlan Wilson, Oberlin College

Victoria R. Wilson, University of California-Irvine

Yves Winter, University of California-Berkeley

Jeffrey A. Winters, Northwestern University

Victor Wolfenstein, University of California-Los Angeles

Gerald C. Wright, Indiana University-Bloomington

Teresa Wright, California State University-Long Beach

Jenny Wüstenberg, University of Maryland-College Park

Waseem Yaqoob, Princeton University

Jack Yeager, Louisiana State University

Rafi Youatt, Reed College

Ana Maria Dzolan Young, Norwich University

Garry Young, George Washington University

Joseph K. Young, Southern Illinois University

Carla Yumatle, Harvard University

Linda M. G. Zerilli, University of Chicago

Karen Zivi, University of Richmond

Diana G. Zoelle, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

Gregory R. Zucker, Logos Journal